For decades, China has been a gigantic factory for all the global brands and Samsung is not an exception. The Korean giant has put many manufacturing units inside the country since the booming era of its smartphone business. However, everything is going to change for not only Samsung but also China, as its last local smartphone factory in Huizhou, Guangdong, has been shut down. Samsung is still selling smartphones in China but now done building them here.

In the quest of improving efficiency, Samsung apparently has to cut down all the ineffective business segments amidst the rise of competitive realities, especially in China. Samsung still has many choices to locate the factories elsewhere around the globe, but this decision does prove that Samsung couldn’t bear the pressure anymore, from both local rivals and economic challenges. Though the company hasn’t given any detailed information regarding the withstanding, these problems could be reasonable for us to stick around.

According to Counterpoint Research, there’s only one percent of all smartphone buyers in China choosing Samsung smartphones as their new devices. At present, Samsung’s customer base is sandwiched between high-end customers and a large number of customers demanding budget smartphones, in which Apple, Huawei, and Chinese brands have shown their dominance over the years. As such, even the Galaxy A-series doesn’t seem to help the Korean brand much enough to color its bleak background. Aside from that, labor costs are gradually skyrocketing in China while the economy is slowing down.

Continuing to make smartphones in the country will not bring any advantage, in fact. There is a load of problems for Samsung to fight against and the best choice is to plant its last factory elsewhere in the world, not China.